Chapter 6: Real Mode — Activate!
Nen abilities came in an almost inexhaustible range of forms. Enhancement types tended to stack numbers; every other type tended to operate on rules and mechanics instead. And compared to a straightforward gap in raw power — which you could evaluate at a glance — an unfamiliar rules-based ability was in many ways more threatening. Catch a veteran Nen user off guard with the right mechanic, and a complete newcomer could take them out through pure exploit.
In the eyes of the Nen users present, Ross was someone who had entered the world of Nen less than a day ago and already had a distinct ability of his own. That signaled serious latent potential. As long as he showed no obvious hostility or immediate threat, the more profitable move was to gather information rather than put out the light while it was still small.
From where they stood, Ross had clearly used his ability to extract something from the creature's body, and it had taken the form of — whatever a game cartridge was. That aspect of it was throwing them slightly.
Killua's confident identification of the object was what gave them pause.
Killua knew about video games almost entirely because of his second older brother — a dedicated shut-in who had achieved comprehensive mastery of game consoles, computers, and figurine collecting. Gaming was one of the very few ways Killua had been able to let his mind unwind between training sessions that would have broken most adults.
The Hunter manga's official serialization began in 1998. The current year in-story, corresponding to the 287th Hunter Exam, was 1997. Because of that overlap, the HxH world reflected many real-world conditions accurately. Electronic games existed here, mirroring reality closely. The most advanced home console currently on the market was the direct equivalent of Sony's original PlayStation, which had launched in 1994 in both timelines. The same went for equivalents of Sega, the Famicom, even Atari — all of them had counterpart versions in this world.
That said, for the majority of people at the exam, gaming was a mild luxury rather than a regular part of life. Some of them had probably heard of it or seen it in passing. Not knowing what a cartridge was was entirely normal.
"A game... cartridge?"
Gon, who had been living something close to a wildlife existence on Whale Island until a few days ago and was roughly the same age as Killua, scratched his head, looking completely unfamiliar with even the term itself.
Ross, for his part, showed no interest in explaining anything. He made a show of tucking the cartridge into his jacket, but it had already been slotted into the collection storage before the motion completed. He turned and walked back toward the main group.
To the Nen users watching, Ross had clearly extracted something using his ability and converted it into a game cartridge. To everyone else, he had just rummaged through the fake examiner and turned up a game cartridge. Since Ross hadn't made any effort to stand out during the underground marathon and had built no particular rapport with anyone along the way, the whole sequence was baffling and mildly irritating in a way that made people want to ask questions — but since Ross wasn't volunteering anything, there was no obvious opening.
With one exception.
"Hey there~~ Don't you want to say anything to me?"
Hisoka's voice cutting into the silence drew eyes from everywhere. He had the standing to ask. In any practical sense, both Man-Faced Apes had been his kills — which by the unspoken rules of the situation gave him first claim on anything found on the bodies. Ross's search had technically bent that.
Ross blinked. He appeared to think about it seriously for a moment.
Then, instead of answering, he asked a question.
"Do you... like video games?"
"Never played one."
Several applicants who had witnessed Hisoka's performance the previous year were visibly surprised. The person who gave you the impression of killing on a whim and finding it entertaining had just produced a perfectly straightforward answer.
Hisoka's idea of a game was the real-life version — cultivating potential opponents like fruit and waiting to fight them at their peak. Electronic gaming was a newer thing, and genuinely outside his experience.
"Then — would you want to try it sometime? That cartridge I just picked up."
The out-of-nowhere invitation actually gave Hisoka a moment of genuine hesitation.
His instincts, built from a lifetime of experience, triggered caution automatically. Ross was also a Nen user. An invitation like this might be a precondition for activating some ability, a setup for something.
But then the corner of his mouth moved on its own.
If this kid could use an ability that had arrived practically at birth to land a real hit on someone with his record — that would only prove the fruit was worth cultivating further and picking later rather than now.
"With pleasure~~"
Hisoka said it with his muscles tensed, ready to respond to anything.
And then Ross's face lit up with a completely open, unguarded expression of happiness.
That reaction stopped Hisoka for a moment.
Deception was not just something Hisoka practiced. It was built into how he read the world, and it had a thread running through his Nen ability itself. He was fluent in the language of performance and pretense at a level most people never approached. Whether someone was lying or putting on a face — he could usually read it in seconds.
Ross's face had nothing on it. No pretense, no calculation, no layer. Just the pure, uncontaminated happiness of someone who had just found a new person willing to play games with them. It was so completely sincere that it produced, in Hisoka, the faint and inexplicable sensation of something pricking at him.
Had he actually been overthinking it?
Ross, for his part, was not thinking about what the deranged fruit farmer was or wasn't overthinking. He was genuinely pleased about having found a new potential player. It was something any gamer understood at a foundational level: the best gaming setup was never the software or the hardware. It was having someone willing to play with you.
He was equally happy playing games alone in quiet or playing games with a crowd of people being loud and chaotic. Both worked. The more people who understood what made gaming good, the better.
It was probably too early to be thinking about this yet — but if the opportunity ever came, if he ever had the means, Ross wanted to build his Little Tyrant into something that surpassed Greed Island.
For now, though, he had exactly zero grounds to be picky. A deeply unhinged potential player was still a potential player. Having one was better than having none.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Satotz's hands brought everyone's attention back to him.
"Hisoka. If there is a next time, regardless of the reason, I will treat it as a second attack on an examiner and open contempt for the examination. You will be disqualified on the spot. Understood?"
"Sure, sure~"
Hisoka's expression had returned to its standard half-lidded smile, and his acknowledgment carried exactly as much sincerity as it appeared to.
The exchange ending meant the rest break ending. Everyone fell in behind Satotz and the run resumed, the group pushing deeper into the wetlands.
In the middle of the moving pack, Ross's hand had quietly acquired a new object — a rectangular controller in red, black, and white. He had designed it using the Beitong series' standard layout as its foundation, with some visual cues drawn from the classic Famicom controller shape. A custom 1P controller, built for his own hands.
"Ah~ha~ Little Tyrant's Endless Amusement!!!"
[Real Mode. Activated.]